278 THE EASTERN SLEDGE JOURNEY 



observer is forced to burst into laughter. During the 

 first weeks of our stay in the Bay of Whales, while we 

 were still unloading stores, it was always a welcome 

 distraction to see a flock of Adelie penguins, to the 

 number of a dozen or so, suddenly jump out of the 

 water, as though at a word of command, and then sit 

 still for some moments, stiff with astonishment at the 

 extraordinary things they saw. When they had recovered 

 from the first surprise, they generally dived into the sea 

 again, but their intense curiosity soon drove them back 

 to look at us more closely. 



In contradistinction to their calm and self -controlled 

 relative, the Emperor penguin, these active little creatures 

 have an extremely fiery temperament, which makes them 

 fly into a passion at the slightest interference with their 

 affairs; and this, of course, only makes them still more 

 amusing. 



The penguins are birds of passage; they spend the 

 winter on the various small groups of islands that are 

 scattered about the southern ocean. On the arrival of 

 spring they betake themselves to Antarctica, where 

 they have their regular rookeries in places where there 

 is bare ground. They have a pronounced taste for 

 roaming, and as soon as the chicks are grown they set 

 out, young and old together, on their travels. It was 

 only as tourists that the penguins visited Framheim and 

 its environs; for there was, of course, no bare land in 

 our neighbourhood that might offer them a place of 



